This paper presents the spherically-averaged 21 cm power spectrum derived from Epoch of Reionization (EoR) observations conducted with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The analysis uses EoR0-field data, centered at (RA=0h, DEC=−27∘), collected between 2013 and 2023. Building on the improved methodology described in Trott et al. 2020, we incorporate additional data quality control techniques introduced in Nunhokee et al. 2024. We report the lowest power level limits on the EoR power spectrum at redshifts z=6.5, z=6.8, and z=7.0. These power levels, measured in the East-West polarization, are (30.2)2 mK2 at k=0.18h Mpc−1, (31.2)2 mK2 at k=0.18h Mpc−1 and (39.1)2 mK2 at k=0.21h Mpc−1 respectively. The total integration time amounts to 268 hours. These results represent the deepest upper limits achieved by the MWA to date and provide the first evidence of heated intergalactic medium (IGM) at redshifts z=6.5 to 7.0.
@article{arxiv.2505.09097,
title = {Limits on the 21 cm power spectrum at z=6.5-7.0 from MWA observations},
author = {C. D. Nunhokee and D. Null and C. M Trott and N. Barry and Y. Qin and R. B. Wayth and J. L. B. Line and C. H. Jordan and B. Pindor and J. H. Cook and J. Bowman and A. Chokshi and J. Ducharme and K. Elder and Q. Guo and B. Hazelton and W. Hidayat and T. Ito and D. Jacobs and E. Jong and M. Kolopanis and T. Kunicki and E. Lilleskov and M. F. Morales and J. C. Pober and A. Selvaraj and R. Shi and K. Takahashi and S. J. Tingay and R. L. Webster and S. Yoshiura and Q. Zheng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.09097},
year = {2025}
}